Rik Mayall Remembered By Friends And Family

Rik Mayall's friends and family have paid their respects to the late comedian at a private funeral service.

Ruby Wax, Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French were among mourners who attended the service at St George's Church in Dittisham, Devon.

Mayall - known for roles in TV hits such as Bottom, The New Statesman and The Young Ones - had a home in the county.

Prior to the service, Mayall's widow Barbara asked fans for their "thoughts and prayers" during the private ceremony.

Image Caption:Mayall died after a morning jog

Around 140 people packed the church to remember the star who died last week aged 56 at his home in Barnes, southwest London after going for a morning jog.

Mrs Mayall said he died of an "acute cardiac event".

Adrian Edmondson, with whom Mayall forged a friendship as a student in Manchester and who was his comedy partner for many of his most memorable series, was among the pall-bearers as the coffin was led from the church.

Others who filed into the church, accompanied by Procol Harum's A Whiter Shade Of Pale on organ, were Alan Rickman and actor and director Peter Richardson, a long-standing friend with whom Mayall had worked repeatedly.

Ben Elton, his old friend from university and one of his co-writers on The Young Ones, was also among the mourners who saw the wicker coffin - adorned with red flowers - carried into the church.

A memorial service for the star is expected to be held in September.

Mayall shot to national fame for his role as poetry-writing anarchist Rick in The Young Ones, going on to star as conniving Conservative MP Alan B'Stard in The New Statesman and Lord Flashheart in Blackadder.